Emeritus Faculty

EMERITUS FACULTY

DARIO FERNÁNDEZ-MORERA

BY CHAIR EMILY MCGUIRE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Professor Darío Fernández-Morera retired in 2021 after 43 years of dedicated and active service as a member of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He arrived at Northwestern in 1977, fresh from the completion of his PhD in Comparative Literature at Harvard University, and held the position of Assistant Professor of Spanish from 1977 until his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in 1982, position he held until his retirement.

A specialist on medieval and Golden Age Spanish Literature, Prof. Fernández-Morera is the author of three single-author monographs and three edited volumes, in addition to numerous articles, book chapters, and review articles. His first book, which helped earn him promotion with tenure, was The Lyre and the Oaten Flute: Garcilaso and the Pastoral (Tamesis 1982), on the poetry of the Golden Age poet Garcilaso de la Vega. His most recent book, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain (2016), is currently on its third printing, and reviews of it have appeared in more than a dozen newspapers and journals. It has been published in French and Spanish translation, and it was listed by the London Financial Times among their “Best Books on History” for 2016. Alongside his own scholarly production, Prof. Fernández-Morera has maintained an active profile of academic service. He has been a regular reviewer for such respected academic journals as Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Hispanic Review, Hispanófila, and the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, and he is an active member of a several scholarly associations, the International Cervantes Society, and the International Society of Hispanists among them. He also served on the National Council of the Humanities from 2002 until 2008, a national honor and a recognition of his standing in the field. In addition to his active scholarly profile, Prof. Fernández-Morera was devoted to teaching and mentoring students throughout his long career at Northwestern. From 1980 to 1995, he served as a Faculty Associate for both Willard and Shepherd Halls (from 1980 to 1995). His course on Cervantes, taught in English for non-majors, has consistently been among our most popular undergraduate courses. In 2008, his dedication to teaching received official recognition when he was awarded the Best Teacher Award from the Graduate School of Continuing Studies. It is thus no exaggeration to say that Prof. Fernández-Morera gave a lifetime of service to Northwestern as an institution and to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in particular. His colleagues and the students he served and mentored thank him for his dedication.

SUE PECHTER

BY DENISE BOURAS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF INSTRUCTION

Sue Pechter, Associate Professor of Instruction, is retiring in 2022, after 23 years of dedication and service to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Professor Pechter earned her BA in Russian Education and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and then came to Northwestern University to complete her MA in Spanish literature. Later, she returned to NU in 1999 to teach in the Spanish Language Program (SLP), where she coordinated and taught the first-year Spanish sequence, with a focus on digital curriculum development. Year after year, Professor Pechter designed and organized all aspects of the Spanish 101 course curriculum and led large teams of SLP faculty and numerous sections of students to successful outcomes. Throughout her time at Northwestern, she was an exemplary role model for her colleagues in both her leadership and teaching, always prioritizing personal connections and meaningful interactions. In the classroom, Professor Pechter encouraged her students daily and aimed to foster critical thinking skills while integrating Spanish language and cultures. Time and time again, Professor Pechter’s students commented on her patience, her empathy, and her innate capacity to create a comfortable yet productive learning environment. They described her classes as fun, engaging and well-organized, qualities that are the cornerstones of successful language teaching and learning.

In addition to her essential work in the Introductory Spanish sequence, Professor Pechter spearheaded various program-level initiatives and was an outspoken proponent of more representation, agency, and voice for teaching-track faculty in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She served as the department’s Faculty Senator from 2017-2020, on the Weinberg Lecturer Promotion and Reappointment Committee from 2014-2016, the University Hearing and Appeals System from 2006-2014 and as a member of the Council on Language Instruction (CLI) from 1999-2022. Additionally, Professor Pechter successfully mentored many SLP faculty candidates for promotion and served on numerous departmental committees throughout the years, including several key teaching-track search committees. This year, we pause to honor Professor Pechter and extend our gratitude not only for her professionalism and vision for the SLP but also for her ability to direct our attention to the lighter side of work life, her sense of humor, her finesse, and her kindness. Finally, we congratulate Professor Pechter on her retirement after the incredible years of hard work and acknowledge her unfaltering commitment to building a solid foundation for the SLP during her tenure at Northwestern University.

PENNY NICHOLS

BY HEATHER COLBURN, PROFESSOR OF INSTRUCTION

After almost four decades at Northwestern, Penny Nichols, Associate Professor of Instruction, is retiring in 2022. With both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialization in Golden Age Prose, Professor Nichols has spent her career at Northwestern compassionately guiding students in their intellectual and personal development through her teaching and service to the Spanish Language Program (SLP), the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, WCAS and the University. Throughout her career in Northwestern’s Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Prof. Nichols has focused on teaching both 200-level courses and first-year seminars, and her service work has largely focused on student well-being as a WCAS first-year adviser. In the Department, her consistent work on behalf of, and dedication to, the liberal arts mission has been evident in her development and coordination of SLP courses that counted towards the major/minor. For decades, Prof. Nichols has balanced level-appropriate linguistic learning objectives with the level of intellectual inquiry required of majors/minors. Her careful focus on examining films, literary and other texts to gain understanding of various Spanish-speaking cultures while developing linguistic proficiency is most recently evident in her decade of work as Spanish 201 Course Coordinator. Prof. Nichols’ daily work in the classroom has consistently created a supportive community of learners that help each other push beyond their comfort zones and broaden their understanding of the world. This expertise in combining intellectual inquiry with communication is also reflected in her decades of teaching a first-year seminar and serving as a first-year adviser. Serving both the Department and College, as a first-year professor and adviser Prof. Nichols has guided students academically and supportively through their initial quarter(s) at Northwestern. Moreover, for many years Professor Nichols continued this focus on student well-being through her service on both the University Hearing and Appeals System (UHAS) and Sexual Assault Hearing and Appeals System (SAHAS). Prof. Nichols’ extraordinary ability to supportively and compassionately teach and mentor students was one of the reasons she was awarded the WCAS Community Building Award in 2007-08 and the WCAS Freshman Seminar Award in 2011-12. Indeed, her focus on community building is also keenly evident in the constant mentoring of colleagues during her time at Northwestern both in the Department as well as in her work with the Council of Language Instruction, of which she was a member for decades. Despite this quite incomplete summary of the many ways that Professor Nichols has positively impacted colleagues and students in the SLP, the Department, WCAS and the University, we recognize and thank her for the decades she has dedicated to ensuring that Northwestern students, faculty and staff have both the opportunity to learn and the freedom to advocate for a more just world. We congratulate Professor Nichols on her retirement and thank her for all the ways—both great and small—that she has made Northwestern a better place for everyone, particularly for her undergraduates and her colleagues.